Inspiration

Today, we went to the town centre, one of Peter's bands was singing wintery songs. Before they started, I wandered into the gallery, and there was a cheery sale of handmade, Christmassy, crafty cheeriness. I didn't buy anything, but I did sneak a few photos, for a bit of inspiration...

Considering I'm meant to be making all (most??) of my presents this year, I'm probably leaving it a bit late for the relaxed, cheery preparations I was imagining...

Still, I know what everyone's having (I think!), it's just a case of, er, getting on with it. Funnily enough, when it's housework that needs doing, crafty things seem far more interesting. When it's crafty things that need doing, there always seems to be something else that needs doing first.

Anyway, the first Christmassy project is started - hooray! There's going to have to be several on the go at the same time, some of which I'll be able to show you, some of which will have to wait...

So now I'm all inspired by the pretty, Christmassy loveliness I saw today at the gallery, and keep imagining even more lovely things to make. Self discipline was never one of my strong points, but I'm trying to add things to the end of the list, rather than the top. But there might be just a couple of changes of plan, a few small extra things... We'll see...

An update

So much for regular blogging once the PhD was finished! The past two weeks just whizzed by in a flurry of full time work (which doesn't suit me at all), socialising, and a bit of sewing.

The problem with sewing and blogging at the minute is that many of the things I'm sewing are destined to be presents for family, some of who pop in here from time to time. And I don't want to give anything away! So it's all got to be timed, and there's so much waiting...

Actually, if I'm completely honest, there's not that much waiting at all, because I haven't even started on Christmas presents yet. Everything's planned, I know what I'm making, it's just the making part that's not happened yet. There's still time, I think! But it'll be a fairly full on few weeks of sewing. The best kind of full on weeks.

One present I have finished recently is for one of my gorgeous nephews, who turned two recently. I pinched the idea from Handmade Home, which sadly I do not own a copy of (yet!), but there's so many fab pictures of projects from the book around on the internet. I looked at a few of these treasure bags, and scouted around the house for things to make it from, then had a go. I think it turned out rather well :) So far I think it's been mostly used to carry toy cars...

I'm easing my guilt about using the idea without buying the book by promising myself that I WILL buy it, very soon, and possibly copies for everyone else too :)

Since I've got nothing much else of my own to show you at the minute, I thought I'd show you what someone else has been up to instead. I went to visit my family last weekend, and was very much appreciating the way that many of us seem to have found some kind of creativity in the last few years. My mum makes cards, and sells them to her friends. My sister is making all sorts (remember the patchwork skirt??), and has recently started having a go at corsetry.

My auntie has been sewing longer than all of us, and has made quite a few gorgeous patchwork quilts, most of which I don't have pictures of (must change that soon!). This was one of the first she made.

It's slightly shakey as the owner of the quilt, my 12 year old cousin, is hiding under it, squirming around and giggling while I was trying to take the picture. Look at those colours! It's the most colourful quilt I've seen, there's so many things to see, and it's so cosy to sit under.

Most recently, my auntie has started making boxes. These are made from sturdy cardboard and fabric, the first couple were done from a template, but now she makes her own designs. This is the most recent one - again, marvellously colourful and jolly :)

The first one's being used to hold sewing bits and bobs, and there's one been made specifically to hold a piece of telescope (very technical description there).

Aren't they fab??

I'm off work today. I was off yesterday too, but felt so rotten I couldn't do anything other than sleep. Today I feel better, not well enough to go to work, but maybe good enough to wander around with a camera taking a few pictures. I might even knit a few rows, or sew a bit, and maybe I'll even make it back in with another blog post before the day's out. We'll see.

Commemorative peg bag

I had this idea. There's a llama and alpaca farm up the road, and I know they spin the fleece into wool, and I thought it'd be lovely to knit some gloves or scarves or jumpers from local alpaca wool...

So we went for a very soggy morning out there at the weekend.

Apparently alpacas don't produce lanolin like sheep do, so they get a bit soggy in the cold and wet weather. They were looking rather bedraggled! And sadly, at £11 a ball, I won't be buying any alpaca wool any time soon... I really must investigate local sheep's wool soon too.

Anyway, aside from the alpacas, it's been a busy but rather mellow weekend. I'm working full time for two weeks now, so I wanted to get a bit of sewing and resting in before all that started.

I found some fabulous old sheets in a charity shop on Saturday. I just couldn't resist them. I bought them with a specific project in mind, but now I've got them I almost can't bear to cut them up! I can think of several gorgeous things I'd love to make with them. Hmm. Watch this space to see what they end up as...

And now, for some sunflowers - the very thing for a rainy November weekend. Bizarrely, the sunflower seeds we planted a few weeks ago and then thoroughly ignored them, watering them only when they were so shrivelled it was embarrassing, have now started flowering!

And carrying on with the sunflower theme... here's the result of all the pondering about the wedding present to make for my boss.

It's a commemorative wedding peg bag, in the colours of the wedding, with their names and the date of the wedding embroidered on the front :)

They actually really liked it! Well, they fell about laughing, at any rate :) The only commemorative wedding peg bag they, and possibly anyone else, had ever received :)

So a success, I reckon. I'm rather impressed with myself for thinking of it! And I think it turned out rather well :)

A bit of sewing

I've been sewing! Oh, how I've missed it. This is Patch, my second one, and he's so cheery I almost can't bear to give him away. This one is for my friend's two year old daughter, and I'm just trying to work out the best way to stick him in the post.

The pattern came from an article from an old magazine that Peter cut out years ago and stuck to a piece of card. We have no idea what the magazine was, or when it's from, but I'm so glad he cut it out all those years ago. Patch is really easy to make, even for someone as impatient as me... I didn't use old tights as stuff though - but only cos I didn't have enough!

Anyway, he was very cheery to sew, and I'm enjoying having him hanging round in the kitchen. He's adding an element of cosiness at the minute, as our boiler was condemned today, just as it's starting to turn properly cold.

It's 20 odd years old, makes rather a racket, but was working pretty much perfectly, as far as this morning. Sadly, the man who came to do the annual service didn't quite agree...

There's been rather a lot of cursing about the obsolescence of boiler parts. Apparently, the part we need is small, relatively inexpensive, but they just don't make it any more, and because of this we 'have' to have the entire system replaced, at a cost of several thousand pounds.

Well, we don't always believe what we're told in this house... so there's been lots of tapping of keyboards and phoning of friends as we've searched for a better solution. Questions have been asked that others might consider a little bit extreme - Can we find this obsolete part anywhere? (possibly) Can we manage without central heating? (yes) Is it warm enough with plug in heaters? (yes) Could we possibly, possibly justify a cheery solid fuel stove?? (Probably not, but doesn't stop me dreaming about one!) Do we have enough blankets? (undoubtedly yes, but that's not a reason not to acquire a few more!) Shall I start knitting hats? (ooh, yes!)

So. A fair bit of pondering going on here. This is one of the disadvantages of a 'simple' life - sometimes it doesn't seem very simple...

Both of us grew up without central heating, and we've never heated the house up like a greenhouse and walked around in shorts and t shirts. This house is old, 110 years old, and has lived through plenty of those years without radiators. The walls are thick - but filled with rubble rather than cavity wall insulation. Fortunately we have double glazing, and thick curtains. So we won't freeze, but it would be handy to take the chill off the house and not let the damp set in... So for now, we've got four small plug in radiators, and that's working nicely today. Not sure the washing's going to dry very quickly though, and we don't have a tumble dryer. Mind you, doing less washing sounds rather appealing!

If we both worked full time, we might have just agreed to buy a new boiler straight away. But we don't, and we didn't. So this is going to require a bit of creativity. I'm up for the challenge.

Back to reality

Well, here it is..

Not entirely sure how it took me 6 years, but there we are! I did hardly anything other than write, eat and sleep for the whole of October, and so far November has mostly involved working, coughing, sneezing and resting.

I'm slowly starting to re-enter the 'real world' now (whatever that means). So far, it's meant strolling over the hills looking at the scenery...

Trying to see the positives of leaving the house for work at 7.30am...

Appreciating that our city air is clean enough for lichen...

And generally stomping through leaves and loving the colours...

I've slowly started sewing again this week too, and if the sun ever shines for long enough when I'm in the house with a working camera, I'll take some photos. I've got lots of plans for Christmas presents too, which will be underway soon... And I'll be heading back out into the garden this weekend - I've already been out and picked some last minute tomatoes which are ripening on the windowsill.

All in all, I've breathed a huge sigh of relief at having got to the end of this writing extravaganza. It's been a long, hard slog, and even though I willingly started it in the first place, there's been many times I've wished I hadn't... I'm grateful for the opportunity, and if you ask me in another six months, I might even say I enjoyed it, but for now, I'm trying not to think about it at all.

I've started lifting my head up again and taking notice of what's around me - in the kind of housework, bank account, overgrowing garden, late birthday presents kind of a sense... So if you're waiting for me to do something that I should have done and haven't, then it's (probably!) on the list and I'll get round to it very soon! I'll have more to say about work, money, making things, growing things, and undoubtedly lots of other things very soon...

So, gardening, sewing, dancing, music, eating, more sewing, more dancing, and a bit of cake is on the cards for the weekend I reckon :)

Colourful goodness

Just a quick pop in to say I'm not popping in much these days... 16 days to go, and counting...

But that's not very interesting, so I'm going to talk about a fab, marvellous blog that someone put me on to the other day - Attic 24 Such colourful, fabulous, crochet-y goodness! I can't stop looking at it ! (although I have to, writing to do and all that).

Anyway, all that colour has inspired me to colourfulness myself. Not to crochet, because there just isn't time for creating and messing around at the minute, as important as that is. But to colour.

I've been whipping my camera out at every opportunity over the last few days, and here's the colourful result.

Cakes at a tiny harvest festival:

Looking up out of the kitchen window:

Light on the grass in the park:

The gorgeous old green bucket Peter brought home last week, sitting on my gorgeous blue garden bench, and newly planted with garlic, rocket, and rainbow chard:

Acer leaves, cut, er, months ago when they were red, and slowly turning golden orange on the living room windowsill (I'm pretending they're still there because of the colour):

One of many piles of red books in the living room:

Red cushions in the sunshine on the floor of the living room (can you see a theme?):

A bowl of red cheeriness, also on the living room windowsill:

I enjoyed that! :)

Well, back to it..

Some pictures of autumn...

Autumn equinox

'For now, light and dark hang perilously poised, each balancing the other. After tomorrow, the shadows begin to cluster ever thicker about the dark scale, taking us with it down to the dark boreal night, the winter solstice. It is the dramatic behaviour of light and darkness that is perennially fascinating in the north.'

(George Mackay Brown, 'Under Brinkie's Brae')

According to my diary, today is the first day of autumn. It's always been my favourite season, when we used to play games as small children, I was always the autumn fairy :) There's a nip in the air, the sun's lower in the sky, the nights are drawing in. There's so much colour.

The garden's starting to die down a little, or at least there's not the riotous growth of a few weeks ago. The rocket on the windowsill is going strong (and needs repotting, I'll add that to the list). It'll have to stay inside over the winter I think - I timed it so badly, but the seeds I sowed outside didn't germinate, and I so much wanted to grow rocket, and then the hardware shop was selling seeds half price and I couldn't resist... So we might be eating indoor-windowsill-rocket for a few months yet.

We haven't exactly had a bounteous harvest from our tiny garden, I've been concentrating too much on writing to put as much time as I'd like into weeding and sowing and watering. But I picked a bit of perpetual spinach for tea, and some fennel and basil (which is inside) for flavour. And very nice it was too :)

No ideas for the wedding gift yet...

A walk, and a bit of a tidy up

A good clear out of the linen cupboard, and a hoover down the back of the bed... (might see if I can get a photo without the twisted bead curtain once it gets light tomorrow). The bed is a mezzanine floor, what used to be the floor of a room. I love it that the bed is all that's up there, looking out onto the skylight. Mind you, I did have to strike a rather dashing and dangerous pose to get this photo...

And a nice walk in the park round the corner...

Last week wasn't all bad, although I'm spending far too much time screen-staring, and not enough sewing... And this week there's going to be a lot of work. More writing, of course. And my boss at my part time job will be getting married next weekend! So I'm doing a fair few hours helping her out this week running about, picking things up, dropping things off...

I was thinking about trawling the charity shops for a new outfit for the wedding, but I'm just not sure I'll have time this week, so I might just have to do with what I've got. I reckon the polka dot skirt I made wouldn't be too bad, with some rather fab red velvet shoes. Might mean a teeny, tiny bit of sewing though, just a small draw string bag to hold a few things... :)

I haven't decided if they'll be getting a present yet. They've asked for money towards their honeymoon and holidays next year, but it does feel rather peculiar to be donating money to my own boss, so I don't think that will happen. And I'm doing well with my hand made presents pledge this year, so I don't really want to break it just for this. However, they've been living together for 12 years, so don't really need anything new. Maybe I'll think of a small thing to make, or perhaps just make a nice card. Any suggestions for something small, and fairly easy to make in this hectic week??

A little bit of gardening and sewing

Well, it's about time for a couple of garden pictures, I think. This was meant to be a gardening blog, after all! I spotted these tomatoes on the way back from (another!) run this morning... The plant's toppled over though, so I'll have to get out there and tie it up soon. 

The roses are putting forth a bit of last minute enthusiasm in the front garden...

And the cabbages are, well, soldiering on, despite being eaten mostly to death by some little beasties. We do occasionally get small leaves if we get out there quick enough... 

And as a little break from writing last night, a friend came over for some sewing and a nice chat. As it happened, it turned into crochet, cake, chocolate and strawberries. And very nice it was too :) 

Squeezing it in

Well, I'm bored of posting pictures of computers and laptops and piles of books and paper. That's what I look at all day every day (or that's what it feels like!), so I'm going with a few pictures of nice things for a while, and forgetting about the work, although obviously there's still a lot of that going on! 

So here's what I'm appreciating this week: 

Sunshine streaming into a (relatively tidy!) living room...

And, as ever, a gorgeous early morning walk over the hills... 

Sometimes I just can't believe how gorgeous this place is that we live in... 

Yesterday involved a good, old fashioned bit of spontaneity, which always rejuvenates me. Peter had his first gig with the Angel Brothers, who he's playing with for a few gigs this autumn. I couldn't go, it was in another town, Peter took the van, and left early afternoon, with me left at home working. 

At first, I was appreciating the solitude and peace and quiet :) I got a fair bit of work done, and planned an evening of more work, a bit of tidying up, and dozing off in front of a nice film. Then, as the afternoon wore on I started thinking about how nice it would have been to be there, and (and this does show just how mad I was going temporarily) whether it would be feasible to cycle there (the answer? It's 25 very hilly, dangerous miles over the moors, and it was on the verge of going dark, so no.)

Just as I was starting to get annoyed, a friend rang up to see if I wanted a pint. Somehow (must have been my lucky night) I managed to persuade him to drive us both to the gig! So a quick pasta tea, into some glad rags, and a drive over to a most marvellously excellent pub, The Globe for a fabulous evening of music and dancing and gorgeous friendly loveliness. 

The evening ended in the garden, with music and singing, and a very cold couple of hours kip in the back of the van. It's not all glamourous... 

Working and relaxing day 10

Working - the view over the library computer... 

And relaxing - with a new pair of shoes... ;)